


do you wanna go on a road trip?

by TheSubtextMachine



Category: Wicked - All Media Types
Genre: Alternate Universe - College/University, Asexual Biromantic Elphaba, F/F, Lesbian Glinda, Road Trips, biological dad run ins, fuckboy fiyero, no magic, probably some cursing
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-12-19
Updated: 2019-12-19
Packaged: 2021-02-26 00:48:07
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 11,724
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21864730
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TheSubtextMachine/pseuds/TheSubtextMachine
Summary: Elphaba sees an advertisement for a book signing by her all time favorite author, the one with the mysterious pen name of "The Wizard", and decides that she has to go, even if it'll be in a town hours away. Glinda also decides that she has to go too. They maybe kinda definitely have the college aged romantic road trip of their dreams.
Relationships: Elphaba Thropp/Galinda Upland
Comments: 5
Kudos: 34





	do you wanna go on a road trip?

When Elphaba sees the event alert online, she knows that she has to go.

Her favorite author, forever under the pen name of “The Wizard”, doing a rare public appearance through a book signing in Emerald City, a mere 1 day’s drive from Shiz University? She _has_ to go.

The issue arrives when she remembers the awfully inconvenient fact that she doesn’t have a car. 

Nonetheless, she figures that she can find a way. Even if it means missing her Friday classes and leaving Nessa in second-rate care, she would be a fool to not see The Wizard. 

Her only question, on that fateful late-night rush of discovery and ruthless determination, is that of what book she’ll have him sign.

-

The next morning, she wakes up thanks to the rays of sun streaming through the arcane windows and Glinda’s hair dryer, blaring noises through the thin wall of the adjoined bathroom. In her sleepy haze, Elphaba doesn’t have the energy to fight the fondness that immediately springs to her heart, of Glinda and her too-soft hair and too-loud music. 

The only thing that squashes her involuntary smile is the realization that she passed out mid-work the night before, judging by the wet drops of drool on her open textbook and dead laptop, still open in front of her.

“Fuck,” she groans, stretching a bit, hearing unseemly pops and cracks from her joints.

Glinda peeked through the doorway, cheery as ever, and began talking, despite being completely drowned out by her hair dryer. Elphaba had yet to build up resistance to the sound, but for Glinda could somehow hear a pin drop with the dryer on high.

“...for the weekend, do you wanna go out and do something? No homework, no rules, Fiyero’s car? We could do anything!” Glinda says, her hair dryer cutting off right in the middle of her monologue. The memories of the night before hits Elphaba with a rush, and even though she’s groggy and bleary-eyed, she knows just what to do for the weekend.

“Have you read anything by The Wizard?” she asks, priming Glinda up for the proposal. Glinda’s always primed, though, so she doesn’t even offer Elphaba a moment to plan her next move.

“Not by choice. You strong armed me into reading The Time Dragon, which was okay, I guess. Is this about the book signing?”

“How did you know?”

Glinda could only flip her hair and flash a wry grin.

“When have you ever known me to be out of the loop?” she says before popping back into the bathroom, putting the hair dryer where it belongs. 

“You mentioned having Fiyero’s car?” Elphaba said/shouted, cuing Glinda to peek her head out of the bathroom’s doorway again.

“Yeah, he’s staying on campus and I promised him some favors if he leant it to me this weekend,” she said, finally finishing up her business in the bathroom and coming back out to sit on Elphaba’s messy bed. 

“Favors?” Elphaba asked, adjusting her glasses as if it would make her wake up a bit more.

“Nothing dirty, ya pervert. Just free use of the printer for the month, and I unblocked him from Snapchat. I will suffer with dailly pictures of just his face, captioned ‘strx’, if it means I can have the weekend of my life. No homework? No family obligations? It was imperative.”

Elphaba paused for a couple seconds, considering.

“Do you want to drive me to the book signing? Road trip?” she asked, tentatively.

Glinda proceeded to yell “ROAD TRIP!!!” so loudly that they got complaints from the dorm next door.

-

What proceeded was a whirlwind of last minute plan making, scrambling for necessary materials, and most importantly: packing.

Elphaba hated packing. She couldn’t tell the future, goddammit, and trying to guess what disaster could arise while she was away from home, packing for it, and then realizing that she didn’t have enough space to fit it? It never failed to bring her into a washing machine of apathy, anxiety, and regret that she was even going on this trip in the first place.

This was simultaneously made worse and better by having Glinda right next to her in the whole process.

Glinda’s music was peppy and a bit too loud, which made the ever-present headache behind Elphaba’s eyes ache a little bit louder, but Glinda’s presence was, for lack of a better word, _nice_. 

She smelled like vanilla and rose, and she blasted some dreampop album that only really made sense to her. 

It was familiar. Glinda was familiar. She was also so pretty, so kind, and Elphaba knew not to go down that mental path, but some days were harder than others. This just happened to be a really hard day.

Elphaba may or may not have had a bit of a crush, one that she just _knew_ was unrequited, but also out of her control. No matter how domestic her life with Glinda seemed at times (like making dinner together, morning schedules, her staying up reading by the lamplight while Glinda snores like a train, among other examples), romance seemed impossible.

She packed everything in her suitcase, thinking with each fold and each placement that her life simply couldn’t fit romance. Work was familiar to her in the way that Glinda was, it was so natural and all consuming.

Glinda made a habit of adding in little interjections of sweetness, like a candy coated “Oh my god, bring products for your hair! I mean, your hair is naturally _gorgeous_ , so show it off! You’ll draw eyes everywhere you go!”

Elphaba tried to combat it, tried to tamp down the pleased flush on her cheeks with some trademark cynicism.

“I already do that by being exceptionally ugly, thank you very much.”

Glinda only rolled her eyes, like she was confident enough in Elphaba’s prettiness that objections needn’t even be taken seriously. Nonetheless, she packs some hairspray and the Nice Brush™ just in case. Elphaba didn’t spend 12 dollars on that thing for nothing, after all.

-

Soon enough, with the necessary phone calls made and their bags packed, the two of them loaded into Fiyero’s car. It smelled a little bit like strawberry vape juice, as well as that intangible scent of a well meaning frat boy.

They started up the car, and Elphaba fired up her GPS, placing it so Glinda could hear the voice and read the directions. It was a fairly auspicious start, with the sun shining kindly above them and minimal traffic as they made their way out of campus and into the real world.

The second they got on the highway, Elphaba leaned over to rifle through one of her bags, causing Glinda to cast a vapid glance her way.

“What are ya digging for, Elphie? Because if you’re pulling out the first bag of chips, I say that we start with the Cheeto Puffs and then reassess. Definitely wait for the Bugles, we’ll need that for when times are tough and we need a pick me up,” Glinda said. Elphaba tittered a bit as she looked up, smiling kindly.

“No, I’m only going to pull out the chips at the one hour mark. I’m trying to pick the audiobook.”

“Ooh, what are our options? Not to sound like an English major-”

“Which you are,” Elphaba interrupted, earning a light slap on the forearm from Glinda.

“ _But_ , if you have any James Baldwin on your person, I would die with happiness. I can’t think of anything that’ll appeal to your Pre-Law sensibilities. What say you, Goody Elphaba?”

“What?” 

“Sorry, on an Arthur Miller kick,” Glinda said, her voice twirling in its own ditziness despite the content of what she was actually saying. It made Elphaba laugh a little, with a side effect of a fluttering heart.

“I’m afraid I don’t have either of those guys, but I brought lots of stuff from the Wizard, so you can get hyped up for this book signing. I’ve got three books on a DVD loan from the library, four on my phone, and one book in my backpack that I can read out loud. That’s the one I’m gonna get signed. Any preferences?”

“What are they about?” Glinda asked.

“Tons of stuff! Political corruption, blood, doing the do, sockhops, murder, all kinds of shit,” Elphaba rambled, thumbing through the CDs in her backpack with a childlike sort of joy.

“Your taste is so diverse,” Glinda said, her voice a cocktail of unfiltered sardonic fondness.

“You’s like this one,” Elphaba said, pulling out a CD with a dull cover to it, “It’s about a god losing track of his own creation. Like Frankenstein but gayer, funnier, and on a larger scale.”

“That’s a high bar to beat. Frankenstein is pretty gay, funny, and large scale. Are you sure you aren’t overhyping this book?” she asked.

“Have you _read_ Frankenstein?”

“Yes. Twice, in fact, once for fun and once for business. And I’ve already read the book in your hand, and you are definitely overhyping it.”

“Slander, it’s fantastic!” Elphaba yelped, trying to mask her embarrassment over underestimating Glinda.

“The prose is bland as fuck, and he definitely could’ve used an editor. Stop reading the swan songs of old misogynists and let me introduce you to the good stuff,” Glinda said, trying to keep her eyes on the road while also reaching for her phone and handing it to Elphaba.

“His prose is perfectly, uhh, enticing. Just as enticing as any of your hippie favorites. Just because it’s not flashy doesn’t mean it’s not good,” she ranted.

“Stop being a dumbass, good prose isn’t flashy. It’s functional and beautiful, so shut the fuck up and play an actual book instead of your drivel.”

“Blasphemy,” Elphaba barked, causing a sharp peal of laughter from Glinda.

“You know what? Go call Fiyero up, he’ll solve this,” she said. With a curt nod, Elphaba opened up the phone app and called Fiyero, desperately and definitely jabbing the phone until the calling screen came up. She put the phone on speaker, and looked to Glinda, taking in the sly smile on her face with a blend of affection and annoyance.

“Hullo?” Fiyero answered, voice sounding like he just woke up. Despite it being about 2pm, Elphaba was 99% sure that he actually just woke up.

“Elphie and I are fighting over which audiobook we should listen to. Tell Elphie that I’m right and we should listen to real literature, not the stuff written by and for white boys in a second rate liberal arts college.”

“I take offense at that, I go to a fantastic liberal arts college,” Elphaba said. 

“It’s B plus at best. Fiyero, what’s your favorite book?” Glinda asked, her voice clearly setting up a trap.

“Uhh, probably ‘Kinderkitten’ by Jerome Jared. Why?” 

“Elphaba probably has that in her collection, right? In terms of mediocre college boy favorites go, do you think that our dearest Elphie-”

“Yes, it’s in the bag, stop bullying me. It’s not my fault I have the same taste as Fiyero!” 

“In your books and in your ladies,” Fiyero joked through the speakers, his voice slurred with fatigue. 

“Shut up. What do _you_ think we should do, buddy?” 

“I dunno, listen to a podcast instead. Get some nonfiction shit in there. Fiction is just gonna tear you two apart, and none of us want that to happen.”

“Neither do we! Being torn apart would make our living situation way worse,” said Glinda while Elphaba scrolled through her phone.

“I have an episode of some true crime stuff if you-” began Elphaba, hovering her finger over an unwatched episode of the series she’d been binging for a while.

“YES!! Yes yes yes! I love that gritty shit!” said Glinda. She began tapping her manicured fingers on the steering wheel with energy, making them sparkle in the sunlight.

“And somehow, you don’t like Kinderkitten…” 

“I like good gritty shit, not the stuff people read when they want to feel smart without actually challenging themselves,” Glinda snarked, and Fiyero could be heard barking with laughter through the phone.

“I miss when Fiyero used to be on my side,” said Elphaba. She hooked up her phone to the car radio, and continued, “Bye Fifi, we’re going to listen to our true crime stuff.”

“Don’t call me Fifi!”

“When you get back on my side you can choose your nickname. But while you’re sticking with the enemy like this? You will have the name of a spoiled dog. That’s what a consequence looks like, I know you don’t come across them often,” Elphaba said.

“Just because I’m a rich white boy doesn’t mean-”

“Byeeee!” said Glinda, reaching over and hanging up for Elphaba, “Play the podcast. Yes, that is a demand.”

“As you wish.”

-

After two episodes of their podcast, a journalist’s explanation on random aspects of municipal law and its nuances, Elphaba paused her phone, and flopped down on her chair, sighing loudly. It was a move straight out of Glinda’s book, which only made it ten times more endearing in Glinda’s eyes.

“Yes ma’am?” Glinda asked.

“I’m hungry.”

“So polite, so sweet,” said Glinda, already looking at the nearest signs for a gas station they could stop it.

“Sweetie, darling. My lovely princess. I wanna eat something. Galinda Upland-”

“Oooh, my full, proper name? You’re really laying it on thick, babe,” says Glinda, taking a smooth exit and smiling.

“What can I say? I’m really hungry. So hungry, in fact, I’m willing to be a homecoming queen. Just for you and the food you can buy me with that beautiful, gorgeous credit card you have,” said Elphaba.

Glinda felt something warm in her heart, a sort of fondness for Elphaba, her best friend and the person she spent so many hours with, quiet and gossiping and whispering stories of being young and dumb. 

“Fine, I’ll buy you food, you little caveman. Only because I’m a little bit hungry too,” she said, seeing the sign of a gas station nearby and coming ever closer to it.

“Little Caveman, I like it. Now I just need a good nickname for you… maybe Big G? Little Caveman and Big G sounds like the title of a fantastic mixtape.

“Little Caveman and Big G Take the Big Apple. We could name the mix tapes like the Muppet Movie…” 

“Shut up about the Muppets!” said Elphaba, sitting up more, “It’s always Kermit this, Miss Piggy that! I swear, you’re obsessed!” 

“I’m not _that_ obsessed,” she said, trying to ignore the fact that a part of the fascination came from the way that Elphaba reminded her of Kermit, and Glinda was Miss Piggy. 

“I live with you. I think I have the credibility to tell you whether you’re obsessed with something. You keep coming to me to clear your laptop from all the viruses that you get when you pirate… say it with me…”

“The Muppet Show, I know, but it helps me calm down before tests!” 

They laughed together, a solid moment of togetherness and camaraderie, of knowing that they _know_ each other, that they have history together. It was one of those unique moments of knowing that you have a friend by your side, and things are fine.

They arrived at the gas station, taking the chance to stretch out in the parking lot, their college sweatshirts feeling properly baggy as random joints cracked. 

They walked in, and the bell rang as they entered, making the plastic store feel awkwardly homey. Glinda beelined to the candy aisle, hands first like a toddler to a cookie jar. Elphaba just trailed slowly behind her, lips curled fondly.

“Which candy are we going to be eating? You choose sweet, I’ll choose salty. That sound fair?” she asked, watching Glinda run her hands across all the brightly colored packages. 

“We’re gonna be stuffing our faces with gummies on gummies on gummies, I claim it here and now,” says Glinda, and before Elphaba can even comprehend, Glinda tossed as many packages as possible into her arms.

“Jesus Christ Glinda! Stop being such a jock, put it in a basket!”

“You can throw things at me when you choose your snacks,” said Glinda, trying to sound as reasonable as possible, despite the fact that he voice was pitched higher than normal from her laughter.

“I can’t aim as well as you!” yelped Elphaba, suddenly aware of the people around her as they looked at the pair of them, screeching and throwing stuff.

“Practice! Makes! Perfect!” said Glinda, punctuating each word with another package. 

“How the fuck are we going to afford this? You cleaned out the aisle,” said Elphaba, only exaggerating a little bit. She was surrounded by bags, and had already crouched down to pick a couple of them up when Glinda came up with her answer.

“I’m not above petty theft,” she said, which made the person behind the counter eye them even harder, if that was possible. 

“We are not stealing. Put these back, alright? If you play nice you can buy three bags. Then we’ll move to the sweet stuff,” Elphaba said.

“I’m already at the sweet stuff, if ya know what I mean,” said Glinda, tossing a humorous wink at Elphaba. Elphaba could only sigh like it didn’t make her stomach flutter, and turn on her heel to do her part of the shopping. After grabbing her own snacks, Glinda followed suit, feeling so fond that it almost made her feel sad.

At the candy aisle, the tomfoolery only escated.

“So, what candy is sweeter than me but not as sweet as you?” Elphaba asked, looking at the chocolate and gummies on display. Glinda laughed behind her.

“Sweeter than you? Most things in the aisle fit that criteria,” said Glinda, and Elphaba faked a gasp.

“Me? Not as sweet as sugar? Say it ain’t so,” she deadpanned. She grabbed a chocolate bar, and passed it to Glinda. Then a bag of gummies, then some mysteriously rubbery thing of green candy.

“Jesus Christ, Elphie, what _is_ that?” asked Glinda, picking it up out of the basket and examining it like she was a scientist.

“My favorite candy. Don’t judge me, okay?” said Elphaba, and if she could blush she’d be red as a tomato. Thankfully, she inherited that inability from her biological dad, whoever he was. It was one of the few facts she knew about him.

“But… what… is it? Like, what world does it come from? Saturn?” 

“It comes from Earth, Glinda. I don’t know how you haven’t noticed them, it’s in all the care packages I get.”

“Yeah, all two of them,” said Glinda, and she knew in the back of her mind that she was probably hitting a sore spot, since Elphaba hadn’t gotten any letters from home since her dad started getting “too busy”, whatever that meant. Glinda never got the full story, but she knew enough about Elphaba to leave well enough alone.

“Both of them were fantastic, for the record. Just because my dad doesn’t love me doesn’t mean he’s got bad taste in candy,” said Elphaba, making Glinda cringe with the sudden damper on the mood. Glinda shook it off as fast as possible, and laughed at it for the joke the line was supposed to be.

“I’m not roasting your dad, even though I really should because of how much of a dumbass he is, I’m just expressing… slight worry over your choice,” said Glinda, her eyes darting to the offending candy. It was shaped like a misshapen pickle, and it was a deeply unpleasant color, the sort of military green that looked good on _no one_. 

“When you eat it, you will love it,” said Elphaba, flippantly tossing the candy into her basket and ending the conversation by just walking away, right to the cash register, leaving a flabbergasted Glinda behind her trail.

“W-wait? I’ll be _eating_ it?!” asked Glinda, running to catch up with Elphaba. Despite the projected disgust, she felt oddly and unavoidably happy, like something was simply right with the world as it stood, with her and Elphaba giggling over food while ignoring the cashier’s dirty looks.

She pushed aside her (obviously unrequited) feelings and basked in enjoyment, bursting out of the gas station with plastic bags in her hands and a heart full of love.

-

Two hours later, when they were absolutely full on roadside snacks (“Okay, I’m sorry for all the shade, that green shit is _amazing_. I don’t care that it looked like a bad pickle, it tastes like heaven.”), they decided to check into the nearest motel, some place called the Sawyer House Motel, a dinky-looking spot where the front desk was manned by the owners son.

They ordered the standard single room, double bed, reasoning that they had lived together long enough at Shiz that it wouldn’t be _that_ bad to sleep in the same room, especially if it cut costs.

The room was on a far edge of the motel, so they had to lug their suitcases down what felt like a maze of hallways, but once they were at their room, they were happily surprised by their luck at finding a reasonably clean spot, which was admittedly unlikely, given the amount of unpopulated towns they were driving through to get to this book signing.

Elphaba put her suitcase on the bed, and immediately flopped down on the thin stretch of space that wasn’t occupied by luggage.

“Are you that tired out by sitting in a car all day?” Glinsa asked, plopping herself down on her own bed with a sweet, teasing smile.

“Fuck you, those podcast sapped a lot of my brain power,” whined Elphaba.

“How are you more exhausted now than you were after your last all nighter? Wouldn’t that sap more brain power?”

“Are you talking about the September one?” she asked with a groan, putting her hands on her eyes.

“Yeah, I guess so. Do you really have, like, names for them?”

“Not crazy names. Usually just the month and/or a major event they’re attached to. The reason I had energy after the September one was that I found some energy drink that’s technically illegal, and it kept me-”

“Wait a minute, wait a minute. Technically illegal?” Glinda asked, wondering how her straight laced friend got into the Shiz black market. When did Elphaba get that much finesse?

“It wasn’t liquified cocaine, calm down. It was just some crazy shit from Germany.”

“How’d you get it?” she asked, admittedly burning with curiosity for where this sort of stuff can even be _found_.

“The Shiz black market, duh. I made my connections there as quick as I could. Where do you think I get those cheap-ass tamales in bulk?” Elphaba asked.

“Oh my god, that’s where you get them? You kept it such a secret!” said Glinda, feeling the shock of this discovery. Elphaba was a bit famous on their dorm floor for her mysterious (but tasty) tamales. Quite honestly, Glinda never considered the possibility that she got it from a Shiz student.

“I only keep it a secret from Boq. If you asked yourself I definitely would’ve answered. If Boq knew that there even was an underground to Shiz, he’d easily destroy the whole operation.” 

“I have… so many questions,” mused Glinda. “What do you sell? Is that how it works, a give a little get a little deal?”

“I mean, I write papers for people in exchange for goods. And petty theft help? In general, I’m kind of known as one of the non-perishable goods suppliers. I just help people do stunts and they pay me however they can,” said Elphaba, before groaning a bit as she pulled herself up to a sitting position. She was completely frank in this moment, and judging by her tone, she was a bit bored by this subject.

“Holy shit. How much are you behind? Vandalism and prank wise?”

“No frat stuff, I don’t fuck with that. More of the social justice stuff, like spray painting Anarchy signs. It’s not really anything big, we just work in little cells to get shit done and then we never speak about it again,” said Elphaba. Her mind darkly flashed with that one time her job was to break someone’s leg. That one was going to her grave.

“So you trade terrorism with tamales. I like it.”

“I figured you would. Wanna eat dinner?” Elphaba asked. She was oddly hyper aware of the bags under her eyes, and she couldn’t totally shake it off. Fuck, she really _was_ tired.

“Hell yeah. Diner time?”

“Diner time.”

-

The nearest diner was exactly what their road trip needed, with its worn out booths and sticky tables. It took a couple sodas for both of them to fully pep up, but when their conversation started rolling in earnest, Elphaba could feel the energy seep back into her. Their appetizer was a plate of delightfully greasy mozzarella sticks, and the air was friendly between them.

“So, this author you’re visiting. Tell me more about him,” said Glinda, taking a prim sip of her soda. 

“He’s a bit of a hermit, right? But he’s an adored hermit. There aren’t lots of pictures of him, and the ones that exist are kind of weird, but-”

“Weird in what way?” Glinda asked, her eyes sparkling with all of the salacious possibilities held in the world of ‘weird’.

“A little bit blurry. He bans cameras from the event. It’s kind of funny, actually, the blurred photos aren’t exactly descriptive, but he kind of… never mind, that’s dumb. Anyway, he’s this brilliant writer, right?”

Instead of nodding to keep the sentence rolling, Glinda spoke instead.

“What were you going to say? It can’t be that dumb, seeing as it’s coming from a logic extraordinaire like you.”

“Okay, this is really dumb, but he kind of looks like my biological dad. Whenever I imagine him, I just fill in the pictures I’ve seen of the bio dad and… yeah. That’s what I was going to say. Pretty dumb, right?” Elphaba asked self consciously, looking unsure of herself, a look that was quite rare.

“Wait, your biological dad? How have I not heard of this?” Glinda asked, even more curious than before.

“It’s not a thing I talk about a lot, or anything, because it doesn’t really matter. My mom got pregnant before she met my dad, the baby daddy ran from town, and they got married.”

“So what do you know about the baby daddy?”Glinda asked, before taking another sip from her drink.

“They went to the same college, he was a douchebag, and I’ve seen pictures. He and my mom had been dating since high school, so him skipping town was… odd, to say the least. It was a town scandal. Add the fact that the son of the wealthiest family in town fell in love with a pregnant woman, then a quick marriage…”

“Your upbringing is so dramatic! I love it!” said Glinda, leaning back a bit in her seat in pure astoundment. “My question stands, though: why did you never tell me?”

“Never felt totally relevant.”

“You tell me irrelevant shit all the time! One time you just texted me a picture of a squirrel, and when I asked you why, you just followed it up with ‘he’s fat’. How is that more relevant than your biological father?” Glinda asked.

“Listen, it was a really fat squirrel. I thought you’d appreciate it.”

“I mean, I did.”

“That was the point,” said Elphaba, and Glinda settled down a bit at that. She took a dramatic sip from her drink, making Elphaba smile, and then launched into her theory.

“I think you’re just afraid of me knowing anything about you as a kid, because then I’ll discover that you weren’t always super serious. I’d bet money that you were a total spaz as a kid, and you just don’t want me to know about it,” Glinda said, pointing one manicured finger at Elphaba in emphasis.

“Thanks for the psychoanalysis, but I’m afraid to report that it’s incorrect. I was never a spaz. I was just as unpleasant in my youth as I am today,” Elphaba said. 

“Sounds fake but okay.”

“Glinda, I almost bit someone’s finger off in kindergarten. At no point in my lifetime was I either a spaz or fun to be around. I’ve always been quite controlled and markedly unpleasant,” said Elphaba, and with that, the waiter brought their food to the table. Elphaba pulled her veggie burger closer to her and dug in with fervor, making Glinda smile a bit at the sight.

“I hate to break it to you, but you are one of my favorite people to be around,” said Glinda, hoping that the sincerity didn’t leak too much into her voice. Instead of thinking too much about it, she just chose to dig into her own plate of pasta, hoping that Elphaba couldn’t see her blush. 

“That’s because you’re a masochist.”

“You got me there.”

-

“I feel like this is too normal,” said Glinda, holding a toothbrush in one hand and a towel in the other, airily wiping some water off her face from her acne cleanse.

“What does that mean?” Elphaba asked as she looked up from her book. 

“We do this literally every night. Where’s the adventure?” said Glinda, and she started to brush her teeth, sticking her head out of the bathroom to receive Elphaba’s response.

Elphaba put her book down, sticking in a makeshift bookmark (this time a coaster) to save her spot in the book. “I figured that a different location would be adventure enough.” 

“But look at us! You’re in your big band t-shirt, sitting on the bed and reading while air drying our hair like a heathen. I’m doing my nighttime beauty routine. What makes this different than any other night?” Glinda asked before returning back to the overly messy process of brushing her teeth. 

“We’re in a motel, for one.”

“That’s a good start,” said Glinda, her words muffled by her continued tooth brushing.

“If we want to get wild I can skip wearing my retainer tonight. Live on the edge,” Elphaba said.

“Bigger! Where’s the glamor, the drama?”

“We can watch cable television,” said Elphaba, totally deadpan. Glinda’s eyes widened comedically, and she ducked her head in the bathroom to spit out the toothpaste. When she reemerged, there were still foamy streaks of the toothpaste around her mouth, now hung open in exaggerated shock.

“Wait, this place has cable?” Glinda asked, then a beat of silence. Elphaba came to the startling realization that this reaction was totally genuine, if her unwavering smile and sparkling eyes were anything to go by.

“Yeah. Do you… not have cable?” Elphaba asked, her words feeling totally awkward and a bit presumptuous.

“My parents refuse to have it in the house after a kerfuffle with Verizon, so it’s not at home, and- I don’t know how to put this into words. We’re going to watch so much cable tonight,” said Glinda before ducking back into the bathroom, leaving behind a shell shocked Elphaba, wondering how a girl who’d never had a qualm about getting organic vegetables was overjoyed by the mere presence of cable. This line of thought was interrupted by Glinda, walking back out and practically throwing herself on her own bed.

“What are we gonna watch first? There is every single option. Do you think those infomercial channels are on right now?”

“Do you want to watch infomercials right now?”

“True, that’s late-late night fare,” said Glinda, whipping out the remote and flicking through the channels at lightning fast speeds, “Criminal Minds marathon?”

“We can do that on Netflix without ads, though,” said Elphaba, not even trying to hide her bewilderment.

“Yeah, we can. But we can gossip during commercial breaks and be, like, ten times chiller,” said Glinda, and Elphaba didn’t even pause to examine the logic. She was too tired and a little bit too smitten with that overly excited grin that blazed across Glinda’s face to argue in earnest.

“Fine, whatever. We can watch your cable marathon,” said Elphaba, not even bothering to hide her smile anymore.

On her bed, Glinda squealed and settled into her bed, staring rapturously at the scene in front of her, trying to pick up on the plot of the episode that they’d plopped right in the middle of. Elphaba herself got a bit lost in it, trying to pick up all the pieces laid out before her, before Glinda’s soft voice broke through.

“If you bring me chips we can snuggle,” said Glinda.

Elphaba was on her feet within seconds, because she may have been stoic, but she would never be stoic enough to pass up some good cuddling.

-

“Is it weird that I kind of want this shampoo now?” Glinda asked, tightening her warm grip around Elphaba the slightest bit. Elphaba was ensconced snugly in her arms, breathing in the warm scent of Glinda’s strawberry vanilla body wash. This sort of physical contact was quite rare for them, saved for those quiet moments when they weren’t overworked or worrying too much about the other realizing the feelings bubbling underneath. Instead of worrying, they just decided to cling to each other, watching the bright lights of the TV shine ever-shifting colors on the white bedspread.

“Well, considering that you just watched an hour of advertisement for this shampoo, I’d be shocked if you didn’t feel the temptation,” said Elphaba, her voice soft and mumbling, all of the masks and defenses she’d built up slowly tumbling down. The vulnerability in her voice just made Glinda want to hold her a bit closer. She tried to push the thought away, reminding herself that Elphaba would never feel the same.

Despite that, Glinda couldn’t help but stare down at the crown of her hair, at the long curtain of dark silk, at the soft sheen. Glinda loved her hair, could stare at it for hours. She fought the urge to reach out and run her fingers through it.

Looking down at Elphaba, at the way that she seemed to ground the world around her, Glinda had this moment of wondering at how anyone could be really cruel to her, cruel enough to make Elphaba so cautious.

Glinda remembered some of the older days, when Glinda was young and a bit insecure in her own feelings, in the way her heart beat a bit faster at Elphaba’s glittering eyes and her stern posture. 

Now, all Glinda felt was a deep, overpowering urge to protect Elphaba from all the harm in the world. 

“Glinda?” Elphaba asked, her voice only a youthful whisper in the night.

“Yeah, Elphie?” 

“Would it be weird if I came out to you while we were cuddling in a motel room?” she asked, and Glinda’s heart felt like it skipped a beat, like her world flipped on its axis. Elphaba was… coming out? 

“O-of course not,” said Glinda, hoping she seemed chill.

“You sure? You seem kind of… jumpy,” said Elphaba, and Glinda didn’t have to see her to know that her nose was scrunching up a bit, her eyebrows drawing together in that cute show of nervousness.

“Yeah. It’s because… um…” Glinda thought, her mind running in circles. Could this be the right time? Is this… She might as well take the jump, she thought. She was Glinda motherfucking Upland, she could take a risk. “I have something to say, as well.”

“Really?”

“Yeah. You first.”

“It’s kind of long,” said Elphaba, and Glinda heard the phantom voice of Fiyero chanting “like my diiiiiiiick”, making her smile.

“I’m ready to listen.”

“Well, uhh… I’ve known that I was queer for a long time. It’s just one of those things that I sort of figured out about myself. But I couldn’t ever, like, put my finger on the exact words. I knew that I liked girls sometimes and boys sometimes, but also, like- I’m sorry, this is hard to put into words.”

“It’s alright,” said Glinda, and she ran a comforting hand over Elphaba’s arm. Glinda counted it as a success when instead of flinching away, Elphaba actually leaned into the touch.

“Basically I’ve been wikipedia-ing a lot of words and identities and I think I’ve figured it out, but it feels weird to come out as- like-”

“What are the words? No judgement here, I’ll hug you no matter what you say,” said Glinda, giving Elphaba a little precursory hug in assurance. She just hoped that Elphaba was smiling.

“Biromantic asexual.”

Glinda hugged her, eliciting a relieved giggle. 

“I follow through on my promises, Elphie,” said Glinda, causing another soft peal of laughter.

“Thank you. I don’t know how to- um… feelings are hard,” said Elphaba. Glinda smiled warmly, and nodded before realizing that Elphaba probably couldn’t hear her nods.

“Boy do I know it.”

“But you’re like, a master at feelings. I’ve seen you comfort so many crying sorority girls. Last time someone cried at me, I walked out the door to get the nurse.”

“I was there, Elphie, I was the crying one,” Glinda said, nothing but warm fondness in her voice.

“Oh shit, you’re right!” said Elphaba, and Glinda could feel rather than see all the nervousness seep out of her, back into the familiar rhythm of their close friendship.

There was a beat of silence, of warmness and calm.

“Man, now my coming out seems lame. I’m just a lesbian,” said Glinda, trying to sound calm despite the rapid acceleration of her heartbeat. She felt Elphaba shock in her arms, her body moving in an odd sort of jolt. She didn’t change position, but Glinda could feel the momentary urge.

“Wait, wait- what?”

“Yeah. Total lesbian.”

“Are you kidding?” Elphaba asked, and Glinda let her tone turn serious as she gave Elphaba another hug through the cuddling position.

“Yeah. I didn’t know how to say it. Girls are just super pretty, and I, uhh… really like them. My parents don’t know yet, and I don’t know how to tell them. I feel like they’d flip shit.”

“Why didn’t you tell me?” Elphaba asked, her voice quiet and more reverent than Glinda had ever heard it. 

“I’m not sure. I guess I thought, that… uh… if I told _you_ , then it would get _real_. It’s one thing to flip on ‘looking for girls’ on Tinder-”

“You have a Tinder?” Elphaba interrupted, earning a light smack from Glinda.

“Let me finish! Anyway, where was I?” 

“It being real.”

“Yes! Real! Okay, this is about to sound real sappy… but you’re kind of the most important person in my life. And if I came out to you, then, like… damn. I don’t really know how to put it into words. I mean, I’m not ashamed or any of that, quite the opposite in fact, being gay is awesome. It’s just so different from how I’m used to people seeing me, and-” 

“I don’t see you any differently.”

The serious sentiment hung in the air, and Glinda had the sudden urge to cry. She wanted to express her appreciation somehow, through hugs or kisses or extravagant gifts. For the moment, she figured she could just give her words.

“This is why you’re the most important person in my life. You’re invaluable to me, Elphie. I’d do anything under the sun for you.”

Elphaba herself wasn’t much of a romantic wordsmith, especially under these sort of emotional circumstances, so she just settled for nuzzling as far into Glinda as she could while muttering “I feel the same way” under her breath as if it were a prayer. 

They fell asleep like that, in each others arms and with kind words on their lips, secretly and hopelessly in love.

-

“When you first saw me, did you think that we’d be friends?” Glinda asked, her eyes not on Elphaba but on the sugar packet she was pouring into her coffee. She was on her third packet, and every new one brought Elphaba to heightened laughter.

The cafe around them hadn’t totally woken up. The waitresses still moved like they were wading through molasses, and the chatter was still muted in favor of numbly sipping on the freshly brewed coffee. Their corner booth was a certain kind of quiet paradise, with sparse, low conversations.

“What do you mean?” Elphaba asked, still a bit drowsy. She tucked a stray piece of hair that had fallen out of her bun behind her ear, and used that same hand to cover her mouth as it yawned.

“I mean, when we were assigned as roommates and all that, did you ever expect that we’d be best buds on a road trip, falling asleep in each other’s arms?” Glinda asked, pointedly ignoring the flutter in her heart that came from the sentence, and the way it made it sound like they were almost lovers.

“Oh, absolutely not. I was a bit scared of you, to be honest. You were so… different. It was like you were the exact person who would hate me, and vice versa.”

“I don’t think I could ever hate you,” said Glinda, almost under her breath. 

“I tried to hate you. Really hard. It’s like- every physical reaction I had to your presence, I decided off the bat that it was anger at your presence,” Elphaba said, lost enough in her own thoughts and rambles that she didn’t notice the sudden curious quirk of Glinda’s eyebrow.

“Physical reactions?”

This made Elphaba realize her mistake. Her heart began to beat a bit faster, and she tried to hide her flustered expression by looking around the cafe, which was slowly waking up. The waitstaff moved a bit faster, and there were some more occupied tables. She took a deep breath in, as if she was trying to suck up all of the energy from the rising sun and steaming cups of coffee. She steeled herself, and got ready to attempt her lie. She was always a bit of a bad liar, and she prayed that by some miracle, this could be the exception.

“Y’know… my heart would beat a bit faster, I’d blush more easily, my head would be rushing… I decided it was an anger thing, naturally because-”

“Sounds like a crush,” said Glinda, interrupting Elphaba’s meandering explanation with an undeniable statement. She wasn’t smiling or frowning, just looking at Elphaba with wide eyes. Was that good or bad?

It looked like wondering. Elphaba took a sip from her mug, still steaming the slightest bit, just enough to cloud the air in front of her eyes a little bit. The roiling of coffee on her tongue was a simpler, easier thing to pay attention to than that contours of Glinda’s face, so beautiful and terrifying.

“Yeah, like a crush,” she muttered, hoping that Glinda would just drop it. She didn’t want to lie, especially not to Glinda- she had the tiniest fear that she _couldn’t_ lie to her, even if she tried.

“Did you have a- a crush?” Glinda asked, a crash from the other side of the restaurant drew their attention. Their heads whipped to the sight, realizing that it was a family, clearly on a road trip of their own, and a young kid who had knocked a mug onto the floor, making it break.

“Yeah, I do,” said Elphaba, just as Glinda’s head was turning back. She realized, a second too late, the mistake in tenses, and she prayed that the scene had distracted Glinda enough for it to escape her mind, but that was unlikely, seeing as Glinda’s eyes seem to widen even more while a blush brushed across her cheeks.

“You do? You too?” Glinda asked, and Elphaba only really realized what had happened when a smile split across her face. Elphaba’s smile followed quickly, practically against her volition. 

“Yeah, me too,” she said, and there was a moment of silence- the expectant, full kind, where the background noise means nothing anymore, all that matters is the gleeful shine of her eyes and the way her smile makes her eyes crinkle a bit.

“Do you wanna… um… be my girlfriend?” Glinda asked. Fear began to creep back into her eyes for a second, but it was quickly dispelled by the way that Elphaba’s face grew, if possible, even more ecstatic.

“Yes,” she said. Elphaba was a woman of few words, at least when it mattered.

“That happened fast for such a long buildup,” said Glinda, thinking back on the years they had spent in each other’s company, all the hopeless pining and fluttering heartbeats.

“Want to do it again? We can go slow motion, if that’s what you’re into,” Elphaba said, and their waitress interrupted the moment, sliding into the picture with a notepad on one hand and a pen in the other.

Glinda and Elphaba just kept sneaking looks at each other as they gave their orders, letting the warm feeling of romance and affection flood their hearts, spilling over into their bloodstream. Every once in a while, in the middle of taking down their orders, the waitress would look between them with knowing eyes, a kind smile on her face.

-

They were in the car, listening to rosy music and finding new beauty in the long stretching plains of the land. They were both alight in their own happiness, so enamoured with the world as it existed in this moment that nothing could bring either of them down.

“You know what I’m most excited for about the signing?” Elphaba asked idly, her eyes fixed on the fields while Glinda’s were firmly on the road.

“What?” Glinda asked.

“I have no idea what the Wizard looks like, and I’m finally gonna find out,” said Elphaba, and while Glinda was practicing road safety (thankyouverymuch) and looking at the road, she could hear the bend of a smile in Elphaba’s voice. 

“No shit? I mean, haven’t you looked him up on Google images, or something?”

“I don’t know about you, but I feel like if I typed in the words ‘The Wizard’ into my search bar, I’d see nothing but stack photos. And I’ve been on the forums, and they have like, eight million different possible pictures, and it’s all of different people. I’m pretty sure most of them are crazy wrong. I just chose my favorite and that’s how I picture him.”

“The bio dad picture?” Glinda asked.

“Yeah. The picture itself is pretty low quality, so when I just sort of filled in his features,” said Elphaba, and Glinda could hear the soft tones of vulnerability seep into her voice. 

“Did you ever meet him?”

“No. I just saw pictures. Enough that I could recognize him on the street but… the picture from the forum is admittedly low quality, so I just sort of filled in the features,” said Elphaba, feeling some discomfort dawn on her with the full understanding of how sensitive this part of her life was to her.

“So is Thropp your adopted father? Officially?” Glinda asked.

“Kind of? He’s more of a stepdad, in a way… My mom got pregnant with me, and they met and got married while she was still present. My biological dad was a boyfriend of hers, apparently, and when the pregnancy test was positive, well… he didn’t really stick around. Dad was glad to stick around with my mom when I was a baby, but the charm of being an angelic man who saved a poor pregnant woman died off by baby number two. It didn’t help that I was a fucking demon toddler.”

“Oh? Demon toddler, you say?” Glinda asked, and her smile seemed to fill up the car with a bit more goodwill. There was less of the anxiety in the air as Glinda giggled a bit in anticipation with the story. Elphaba didn’t know it was possible to be more smitten, but the tinkle of laughter did it.

“I… um… please don’t judge me for this, I was a literal child but-”

“Oh, this is gonna be good. I can tell. Spill it,” said Glinda, her excitement amping up by the second.

“Okay, okay! I may have attempted to bite off one of my teacher’s fingers when I was in daycare,” said Elphaba sheepishly.

“Holy shit.” A pause. “Did she deserve it?”

“I don’t remember, I was three!” 

“I think I trust three year old Elphie’s judgement enough… she probably deserved it. You’re a smart cookie. I’d trust you to decide who lives or dies,” said Glinda, making sure her voice was toon light for her words. The comedic effect was clear, judging by Elphaba laughing through her faux-shocked face.

“That sounds like a plan. I’ll be the goddess at the gate, and you’re my secretly brilliant arm candy. You can design the gates of Heaven!” said Elphaba.

“I’m in. Where do I sign?” said Glinda, no longer feeling the pressure to push down her fluttering heartstrings. A new kind of confidence glowed through her, and she could tell by her thrilled smile that Elphaba noticed the new energy.

-

“Why do you have the exact same taste in literature as every English major fuckboy ever?” Glinda asked as she pulled into the bookstore parking lot, looking critically at the line that was already forming out of the door. It was almost exclusively fuckboys of all different variations, which made for a simultaneously impressive and terrifying line.

“It’s not my fault! He writes good books, I can’t control the fact that a bunch of lame dudes like them!” defended Elphaba, unbuckling her seatbelt.

“I know, I know… do you want me to grab the book he’s going to sign? Or are you gonna- oh, alright,” said Glinda, watching with something between amusement and worry as Elphaba hoisted an insanely heavy-looking bag onto her shoulder.

She followed Elphaba as she strutted to the back of the line, totally self assured in a way that Glinda didn’t get to see too often.

“So now the wait begins, I guess,” said Glinda, suspiciously eyeing the line. “How long do you think it’ll be?”

“Don’t worry, it won’t be too long. And my stamina for waiting in lines is fantastic, so I’ll be fine at least. All else fails, I’ll just throw you to the wolves and ransack the bookstore,” said Elphaba.

“I have… so many questions.”

“I thought what I said was pretty self explanatory,” said Elphaba in mock confusion.

“Question number one- wouldn’t ransacking take up stamina? The stamina that would be gone because you waited in line? Also, what wolves are you going to throw me to? The Yorkie over there?” Glinda asked, pointing to the tiny dog across the street, being walked on the sidewalk.

“Sounds like someone’s never been on the business end of a Yorkie Terrier bite… let me tell you, they can be absolutely vicious.”

“Elphie, that dog is literally wearing a sweater. I doubt that she even has a business end,” said Glinda as she took a step forward in the line, which was slowly making its way up.

“That’s what they all say…”

“What the fuck? Who are they? What happened to them? You can’t say cryptic things like this when we’re going to be stuck in a line together for this long. I’m going to go crazy.”

“Don’t worry, I’m just passing the time until I can actually see the Wizard’s face. After that I’ll just rant about his face. And then when I get bored of that, I’ll be so excited that I just talk about his books, and then-”

“Babe, we are three steps away from the window where all the other nerds keep looking in, I’m assuming that’s his face, so get all the cryptic stuff out now,” said Glinda, casting a scrutinizing glance to the trio of guys with the exact same haircut who were oohing and aahing over whatever could be seen through the mirror. 

“I’m getting the insinuation that I’m a nerd… you wanna say that to my face, ma’am?” asked Elphaba.

“Come one, as if you being a nerd is news.”

“I resent that accusation!”

They took one more step forward. Glinda kept track in her head- two steps away from the window. This better be good.

“I’m probably a nerd too, if we’re being honest,” said Glinda.

“Oh, you’re absolutely a nerd! On the way here you went on a rant about how dumb modern achitecture is, and you name dropped a shitton of heady principles in the process. I’m pretty sure you even used the word Baroque at some point, which impressed _me_ with its nerdiness, and that is saying something.”

One more step forward, one more to go. Glinda had a pit growing in her stomach.

“After you’re done fangirling over The Wizard, do you want to check out their clearance aisle? In the bookstore, I mean… I’m always down for some cheap finds,” said Glinda. Her foot started tapping. The feeling of something dangerous wouldn’t escape her. She couldn’t tell where this all came from, whether it was a cruel twist of PMS fate or a genuine burst of intuition.

“Yeah, that sounds good,” said Elphaba. By one peek at her face, Glinda could see that she was feeling it too. 

One step forward, and they were finally at the wide window, and it had a perfect, head on view of the signing table, and The Wizard himself.

“Holy shit, that’s my dad,” said Elphaba, in a quietly reverent tone that was entirely new to Glinda. 

“This is not the outfit I planned to meet any of your parents in,” said Glinda, looking down at her ratty “Shiz University” sweatshirt.

“Stop joking around, that’s- oh _fuck_ that’s him! What the _fuck_ am I supposed to do? Do you think- do you think he even knows he had an illegitimate child? Or is this just going to be a surprise on every- every level?” Elphaba ranted. 

“Sweetheart, I need you to take some deep breaths. In,” said Glinda, breathing along with Elphaba, “and out…”

In silence, they continued to breathe, soon reaching a sort of equilibrium again. Elphaba’s panic was still betrayed by her comically wide eyes, looking as if she’d just seen a ghost. In a way, that’s exactly what happened.

“Do we need to leave?” asked Glinda, taking another look at the man through the window. She could see the resemblance in the most subtle of ways, in the curve of the nose or the slant to the jaw. 

“No, I want to meet him. Makes sense that he’s my dad, I guess,” she said with a humorless chuckle, “who else could write a book that could hit me that deeply?”

Glinda saw a glint of hope in her eyes, and that gave her more trepidation than anything else. Elphaba wasn’t the type to give herself over to hope, this shit was dangerous.

“Okay… if at any point you need to boogie out, I’ll be ready in a heartbeat. I’m here for you.”

“I know,” said Elphaba with a heartwarming certainty. 

“So, umm… what are you going to say to him? Any plans for the first words to your bio dad?” Glinda asked, putting her hand on Elphaba’s shoulder in some attempt at reassurance.

“Whenever I imagined it, it was always some planned meetup. I’d find him online and message him there and he’d know about me before we met face to face, so… I didn’t plan for this possibility,” said Elphaba. The line moved forward one step.

“Maybe let him figure it out? Play dumb? Walk up and be like, ‘wow I didn’t expect my favorite author to look so much like me… Gee, maybe the father I never knew could be in this store right now, what are the possibilities?’”

“I’m not going to do that.”

“Coward.”

“If not saying that to my bio dad that I’m meeting for the first time is cowardice, then put me on a stage and call me a coward,” said Elphaba, beginning to tap her foot in impatience for the line to move forward. They were almost at the door, she was almost in the same room as her _biological dad_. Luckily for her, they moved forward another step, and she got to stand right in the doorway, with Glinda right behind her.

“Are you- are you going to introduce me to him as your girlfriend? Or is it possible he might be homophobic? I just need to know in case I should get ready to give a good lecture of tolerance,” Glinda asked, and Elphaba got this charming image in her mind of Glinda giving a kindergarten lecture-style speech on being a good ally. It calmed her down a little bit.

“As much as I appreciate it, that won’t be necessary. I’m sure he’s educated enough to be able to tolerate the gays. And the biromantic asexuals, in my case.”

“Alright… I’ll have it ready, though. You never know when a homophobe might strike,” said Glinda, cautiously looking around her, as if she were surveying the field for possible foes. Elphaba gave her a quick peck on the cheek before taking a step forward with the line, grabbing her hand and taking her away from the task of keeping watch for possible homophobia.

And with that step, she was inside. She was officially in the same room as her biological father. It felt weird, like tiny little fireworks were sparkling around her ears, making the atmosphere feel sharper and cloudier at the same time.

She could pinpoint the moment that she and her dad locked eyes for the first time- in between book signees, he looked around the room for a second, passed over her like he did with the rest of his avid audience, and then was slowly drawn back to her with some unknown realization that this was no ordinary fan. Elphaba wondered, for a moment, if he thought she was her mother.

They locked eyes from across the room. Elphaba realized that this was a thing she must’ve inherited from him, that she must’ve gotten those laser-focused grey eyes from him. It was uncanny.

His eyes were shocked open for a second, before he shook his head, as if physically pushing the thought from his mind. With a deep breath, he turned to the next person in line with a fake smile, and began to sign their book. 

Elphaba didn’t know why that made her heart sink a bit.

“Are you still good?” Glinda asked, breaking her captivation with him. She looked back at Glinda, at beautiful, kind-faced Glinda, and felt some small bit of peace come back to her.

“Yeah, I’m alright. I think he’s going to wait until it’s my turn in line to deal with the whole… shock of it,” she said, hoping that she sounded confident, even if she was beginning to feel quite terrified.

“Efficient man, huh?” Glinda asked. “Must’ve gotten it from him.”

“I think I’m a lot more like my dad than I previously thought,” Elphaba said, her eyes sliding back to him, looking shaken but still pushing through. After reading all of his books, she felt like she had known him for a lifetime. It felt odd that for all she knew about him through his work, he had never even thought of her. Did he even know that he had a kid? 

“I think he’d be proud of you if he knew you and everything you’ve done,” said Glinda, looking over at him and sizing him up, both for likeness with Elphaba and possibility that she’d have to kick his ass for making her girlfriend sad.

“I hope so,” said Elphaba.

One more step in the line, one step closer to the inevitable storm of an unexpected meeting with her father.

“You know that I’m ready and willing to beat him up, right?” Glinda asked.

“Yes, I do, and I won’t let you. Even if he sucks, it’s not worth going to jail over. I don’t want to spend the gas money on bailing you out.”

“ _Fine_ ,” grumbled Glinda, before taking another step forward. 

Elphaba’s mind was moving at top speed, her neurons firing and making connection after connection- a dozen tiny realizations that bloomed and grew and _freaked her the fuck out_. She wondered how much was hereditary. Did she get her analytical, mechanical brain from him? Did she get the fondness for rusty things from him? She could see herself, suddenly, in all of the abandoned girl characters that found their way into his novels. Was she the inspiration for Gaelila, the roving, sharp-eyed child who helped the hero on his journey? Was she the bitter, broken Pauline, a college student still mad about her father’s disappearance when she was eight?

Was her mother in the books?

The thought was somehow scary and intriguing. The idea of finding pieces of the mother she didn’t get to know enough of in the pages of her favorite books was somehow exhilarating. That being said, how would she even be able to parse out the truth from the imaginations of her own father?

Her biological dad, in the flesh, walking distance away. The only thing between them was a line of readers and over a decade of silence. 

Glinda squeezed her hand reassuringly. Not even that could calm the fire in Elphaba’s lungs.

One step closer, then another. One new memory of a character that could’ve been her mother, one more drag of her feet across the carpeted floor of the book store. One step forward into the past. 

Then, simultaneously too soon and not soon enough, it was her turn. She walked up to the table, with Glinda hanging in the back, surveying the scene. With wide eyes, she got a closeup look at her _father_.

He looked like her.

“What are you doing here?” he asked, his voice low and impossible to read. Was he mad? Overjoyed? Scared?

He kind of sounded like her, too.

“I like your books,” she said.

“Are you-” he began.

“Yes.”

“I’m- Do you want me to sign?” he asked, his voice strained. 

“Uh, yeah,” said Elphaba, handing over her book with shaking hands. As he spoke, he kept writing, not even looking up to meet her eyes.

“Listen, I can’t- I have a good life. I have a family. I’ve moved on from your mother-”

“She’s dead,” Elphaba interrupted, before realizing after a second that she might’ve been to brusque for such brutal news.

“I know.”

“You moved on from a dead woman?” 

She looked down at the book in his hands. _Absinthe Fairies and Other Short Stories_. Her mind flashed immediately to her favorite story in the collection, the one about losing someone you never totally knew. She highlighted it and thought about her biological father and her mother.

“Listen, you’re young, I don’t expect you to understand… just- just leave me alone, okay? I’m over it.”

“In case you change your mind, do you want my-”

“No. I won’t change my mind.”

Elphaba wondered for a moment if she inherited her decisive stubbornness from him. 

“Okay. Have a good day, I guess,” she said, not totally letting the news hit her yet. She took the book, stepped away, and then made a beeline straight to the door. All of the circuits were misfiring, all of the feelings long locked away ramming their heads through the door and making her _feel_. 

She burst out into the grossly cool air of the day and suddenly smelled the faint scent of vanilla, and remembered Glinda. 

Sweet Glinda, following after her, reaching to her shoulder and asking if she was okay. The tears began to cloud Ephaba’s eyes and stream hot down her cheeks, and she buried her head in Glinda’s shoulder, sobbing and feeling foggy and just trying to breathe in the comforting vanilla, breathing in the good and breathing out the bad. 

“Let’s go, sweetheart,” said Glinda, her words only a soft murmur.

Elphaba could only sob louder, harder, with more pain behind every harsh push of a breath. 

Glinda pulled her away, guiding her into her car, and behind the curtains of wrenching crying noises and tears in her eyes, Elphaba could hear the words “we’re going home”. 

Elphaba heard the rumble of the car start, and suddenly, they were on their way home. 

-

They had been driving for a while, long enough that the color of the sky had darkened and mellowed out a bit while they traveled. Elphaba’s tears had abated, and Glinda played some soft, lilting song on the radio while she waited for Elphaba to be ready to talk. 

Elphaba grimaced at the unusual sensation of dried tears on her face, and then she allowed herself to talk.

“The thing is- and please don’t make fun of me because I’m sure this makes me sound like Little Orphan Annie-”

“Elphie,” Glinda said, her voice stern enough that it stopped Elphaba in her tracks. “I would never make fun of you for something like this.”

“Thank you,” said Elphaba, taking a pause to try to remember where she left off, and once placing it again, she continued. “I think I just expected that when I found my biological dad, he could fill in the spaces left by my adopted dad, y’know? I guess I… I never really accepted that I wouldn’t grow up with someone who acts like a dad, and I figured better late than never, in terms of getting my father figure now, but that clearly didn’t work out, so… Two tries at a dad, no successes. What a track record. And I know I don’t really need one, I never wanted to play catch, and I’m a well adjusted enough person, but _fuck_ , it just _sucks_ that I don’t get to have what they have.”

“That’s totally valid, Elphie. It’s not a problem to want things you didn’t get when you were a kid. Some people seriously let you down, and it’s not your fault that you want something better for yourself. Fuck, I want something better for you, you deserve better. Even if it wasn’t a dad, adult figures to guide you can be fucking important, and my family is totally down to adopt you. We’ll give you the Thanksgiving dinner of your dreams.”

“Really?” Elphaba asked, thinking back on the past few dinners her family had. They were all so cold, so uncomfortable… it was a small change, but having a nice Thanksgiving dinner sounded like an improvement.

“Absolutely. We’d love to have you,” said Glinda, reaching a hand across the car console. 

“Thank you,” said Elphaba, her voice hushed with some mix of wonder and love as she took Glinda’s hand.

“It’s my pleasure, darling.”

-

A couple hours later, well into the orange-pink sunset and with a bag of drive through fast food in the center console and two extra large milkshakes in the cupholders, Elphaba dialed Fiyero and put him on speaker. 

“‘Wassup?” he answered, his voice dreary as if he had recently woken up from a nap.

“Fiyero!” Glinda yelled through a bite of a too-hot fry.

“You wouldn’t believe what has gone down!” said Elphaba, sharing a knowing glance with Glinda. The sting of her father’s rejection had faded, enough so that it ranked second on the news to spill to their friend in this moment.

“Yeah? Spill the, uhh…”

“Tea?” Glinda prompted.

“Yeah! I was going to say spill the beans, but yesterday Boq said that saying that was, uh, ‘straight culture’, quote unquote, so I’m trying to say tea instead.”

“That’s so woke,” commented Elphaba, before turning to Glinda, silently questioning who would say it first.

There was a momentary pause.

“So, what’s with the call?” asked Fiyero, never one to put up with a pause. For once, Elphaba was thankful for it.

“We have news,” said Glinda. “Do you want good news or bad news first?”

“Bad?”

“Bad news: the Wizard is a dick and I don’t recommend his books. Find a better author. Good news, we’re together now!”

“Oh, that’s a lot of tea, uh, were y’all not together?” Fiyero asked. Glinda and Elphaba shared a moment of confusion.

“No?” Glinda said.

“So y’all… wait, did you just now get in the car together-”

“You’re so fucking stupid, I love you,” interrupted Glinda, giving Elphaba a moment to realize his confusion and give him the explanation he so clearly needed.

“We’re together as in we are dating now. We’ve been together, as in spatially in the same room, for like- what, the majority of this road trip? Yeah, that sounds right… basically while we were in the same room during the road trip, we realized we should be girlfriends,” explained Elphaba.

“Huh. Tea. I’m proud of y’all.”

“Yeah. Tea,” said Glinda through giggles.

-

When they arrived back to their shared dorm, everything was exactly as they left it, which was a bit of a mindfuck after such an eventful trip. Everything had changed, it seemed, but their rooms. 

Elphaba just shook off the thought as she pulled her luggage back into the room, immediately tossing her bag on the bed, cursing beneath her breath when on impact, two books and an empty can of Sprite jumped out. 

Glinda, however, stuck by the doorway, leaning on it and catching a much-needed breath. She watched as her girlfriend (!?) rushed to her bed, putting the books on the meticulously kept bookshelf by her bed and attempting to throw the can from across the room into the recycling bin, missing by a long shot.

“I’d say that was quite a successful trip,” said Glinda. She hoped her smile wasn’t too obvious, too lovestruck.

“I guess,” said Elphaba as she made the walk of shame to pick up her can. “Sorry that you had to spend that much gas to watch me find and lose my biological dad in the span of five minutes.”

“But I got you out of it. That’s the success,” said Glinda, feeling her heart swell at the way that Elphaba ducked her head a bit at the affection, almost hiding a smile. 

“You’re such a sap.”

“I know.”

“I love you.”

“I love you too.”

**Author's Note:**

> if u leave a nice comment i'll smile like an idiot jsyk


End file.
